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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Booksteve Reviews: The Book Thief

Last year, my son David bought a copy of THE BOOK THIEF by
Marcus Zusak, a book I had not read but had sold quite a few copies of over the
years. I opened it and started reading...and discovered one of the best books I
have ever read.

At the time, I didn’t even realize that a film version was
in the works. Following so close on the heels of my reading of the book itself,
comparisons were inevitable.

THE BOOK THIEF is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl
in the pre-war Nazi Germany of the 1930s and the effect she has on those around
her. The film is largely missing the book’s unique voice until the end, that being the
quirky, omniscient narration by Death personified. It’s a conceit that works
amazingly well on the printed page but would perhaps add too much of an air of
the supernatural to be used throughout the movie version. It’s there from the beginning but it’s very sparse and not as
memorable...at least not until the end.

On-screen, the look and feel of the period is near-perfect,
left incomplete mainly by the necessity of having the characters speak accented
English rather than German. Although the book is itself told in fragments, the
film is also, but that serves to one who’s read the book to make it feel more
like a series of dramatized scenes from the text than the whole story.

The all-important title role rests comfortably on the more
than capable shoulders of a young Canadian actress named Sophie
Nélisse. She’s quietly brilliant, really, in that way that all good child
performers manage to pull off at least once. If we’re lucky, she’ll have more
and more chances to be this brilliant over the years. If not, it will be our
loss.

Geoffrey Rush, on any real acting fan’s list of the Top
10 best actors in film these days, shows a delightful and nuanced chemistry
with Sophie as her new “father.” His character is weary and tired but also wise
and with a largely hidden strength.

The plot? Liesel learns to read. If you break it down,
that’s pretty much it. Only it isn't nearly that simple considering her time,
her place and her situation.

The book, THE BOOK THIEF, will likely remain untouched
on my personal best books list along with FAHRENHEIT 451 and SLAUGHTERHOUSE
FIVE, ironically two books dealing with some of the same aspects behind THE
BOOK THIEF itself.

The movie THE BOOK THIEF, is full of what the young
folks call “feels,” both light and dark, with some beautiful photography and attractive
performances going a long way toward making the same story work, although sometimes
in different ways than in the book.

In the end, it’s all about Liesel and how one person, no
matter WHAT the circumstances, or even the intent, really CAN make a
difference.

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About Me

First published in 1968 (I was 9!), I have been writing professionally part-time for more than two decades. I have been freelancing for various authors, editors and publishers for the past three years on the behind-the-scenes tasks of writing.